Sword Oratoria Vol. 1 – 3 Manga Review

Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? has become fairly popular franchise. Called Danmachi for short, the franchise is another entry in the RPG-style genre of anime and manga but stands out even with some fan service elements. The character Bell is far more relatable than most anime protagonists as he strives to get stronger rather than acting like a pretentious ass. On top of that, he’s not thrown in a fantasy world by accident without any concrete reasoning but instead is part of a fantasy world. It’s no surprise that with a hit like this a spin off happens; Sword Oratoria for short but is properly titled, Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon On the Side: Sword Oratoria. If you can move on from its ridiculously long title you’ll meet the protagonist Aiz, a powerful adventurer. Her primary desire is to grow stronger by defeating monsters and her social skills suffer a bit for it. Luckily, her Familia is full of personality to keep her going is there’s plenty of monsters in the dungeon to defeat as well. But soon, Aiz begins to desire something more than strength and it’s something a dungeon may not be able to give her. From the art to the writing, this spin off is amazing. In fact, I enjoy Sword Oratoria better than the original. Supporting characters like Lefiya who has a crush on Aiz and constantly wants to grow stronger to impress her and Tione with a crush on their leader that borderlines obsession, make this series much more enjoyable. Blood and action come in large quantities in this spinoff but the story is even stronger. Volume one sets the stage and ties in to some events of Danmachi and explores Aiz’s desire for strength as well as strengthening bonds with supporting characters. In volume 2, the reader learns there’s so much more than just Aiz’s desire for love, there’s a conspiracy growing that carries into Volume 3 sets which puts the cast on the trail of an enemy that knows Aiz as more than just the strong swordswoman of rumors. Action, low amounts of fan-service, suspense, blood, and fantasy is to found in the pages of Sword Oratoria Volumes 1 -3 but additionally a story readers can easily get lost in. Luckily there’s more manga to look forward to, an anime adaptation of Sword Oratoria that came out last year, and a video game in the works for the overall franchise as well. I highly recommend this to fans of Danmachi and lovers of RPG- style anime and manga.